Friday, April 24, 2015

'Missing features' will be returned to Cemetery Ridge, Ziegler's Grove at Gettysburg

The campaign
to transform a small portion of the Gettysburg battlefield into what
it looked like in July 1863 will include reducing the size of a parking lot,
re-establishing a ravine that was filled in when the old Cyclorama building was
constructed and the relocation of monuments to their original location.

Park
officials on Thursday announced $1.3 million will go toward the latest phase of
the rehabilitation of Cemetery Ridge and, specifically, Ziegler’s Grove.

“For
the first time in more than 50 years, this portion of Cemetery Ridge will have
its historic appearance, offering fresh experiences for a new generation of
Gettysburg visitors,” said Ed Clark, Gettysburg National Military Park superintendent.

The National
Park Service’s $600,000 will work with a $700,000 match from the nonprofit
Gettysburg Foundation to lessen the footprint of what park management assistant
Katie Lawhon has called “modern intrusions” on the hallowed ground while restoring some historic features.

The
foundation previously has said the growth of the town, commercial development
and the construction of battlefield buildings that came to be seen as eyesores
had a significant impact on the landscape.

“These dramatic changes have hidden the
site of important battle action under asphalt parking lots, concrete, brick and
non-historic vegetation,” reads a blog post on the foundation’s website. “Thus,
it is nearly impossible to visualize today the conditions encountered by over
6,500 soldiers in July 1863. The events that occurred along the western slopes
of Cemetery Hill and the northern edge of Cemetery Ridge had a significant
impact on the Battle of Gettysburg and, ultimately, the cost of the Civil War.”

Monuments will be moved 20 feet to original locations (NPS

Officials knew something had to be done,
and Thursday’s announcement is another step in the process.

The NPS demolished the old visitor center in 2009 and the
old Cyclorama building in 2013. The visitor center parking lot was removed in
2014. The Cyclorama and visitor center are now combined, southeast of Ziegler’s
Grove.

Some of the buildings and infrastructure constructed from
the 1930s to the early 1960s came at the expense of historic landscapes. Jim
Campi, writing in Hallowed Ground magazine, said this of the now-gone Cyclorama
location: “The modern brutalist design of the building, which some equated to
an alien spacecraft, ensured its incongruity within the battlefield landscape.”

Lawhon told the Picket said that a parking lot for
visitors to Soldiers’ National Cemetery will be reduced, with room for four
buses, 54 cars and three spots for disabled drivers.

Monuments that were moved for the construction of the old
Cyclorama building will return to their original locations. The project also will
rebuild ornamental entrance gates at Hancocke Avenue and Taneytown Road and commemorative walkways.

Gateway to Hancock Ave. at Taneytown Road will be rebuilt.

Gettysburg
Foundation President Joanne M. Hanley said, “The Gettysburg Foundation has
contributed to the rehabilitation of Cemetery Ridge since the inception of the
idea to bring back missing features of the battlefield landscapes.”

President
Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address at the cemetery. This portion
of Cemetery Ridge was a crucial part of the Union army’s defense. Ziegler’s
Grove is near the modern southern boundary of the town and just northeast of the
“High Water Mark” of Pickett’s Charge.